by Peter Grant
“We’ll head for Pueblo in the mornin’, and hire an architect, an’ start planning right away.” He hesitated. “Ah… does this mean I shouldn’t be… er… botherin’ you any more?”
She burst out laughing. “Silly! The baby won’t be here for seven months or so yet, and I’m a normal, healthy, red-blooded woman. You’re not getting away with that excuse!”
He grinned. “No excuse, love, just a man who ain’t real sure what he’s just got himself into.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Now, walk me back to the apartment, so you and I can get into it again!”
Author’s Note
The tension between Indian tribes – the Comanche and Kiowa in particular – and buffalo hunters, would-be ranchers and settlers in the Texas Panhandle and surrounding regions grew steadily worse with the westward expansion of white settlement after the Civil War. The buffalo hunters brought matters to a head after they’d thinned out the central herds so much that hunts there were no longer as profitable as they’d been. They wanted to shift their operations to the abundant herds of buffalo in the southern part of the USA.
Hundreds of thousands of the creatures grazed on Indian land in what is today central and western Oklahoma, and on traditional Indian hunting grounds in the Panhandle and surrounding plains areas of Texas. The tribes weren’t about to tolerate commercial hunting there. Buffalo formed their staple diet, and provided furs, hides and many other requirements. They knew that if the buffalo died, their entire way of life would die with them; and they were determined to prevent that at any cost – even war, if necessary. The US Army, on the other hand, regarded the extermination of the buffalo as an essential part of defeating the tribes. It would force them onto reservations where they could be controlled.
Attempts were made to regulate the situation, leading to the Medicine Lodge treaty of 1867; but such agreements were increasingly honored more in the breach than in the observance. Clashes between buffalo hunters, settlers, and cattlemen on the one hand, and Comanche and Kiowa on the other, grew more and more frequent – and bloody – during the early 1870’s. They led to the Red River War, which broke out in June 1874 with what became known as the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. It was during that fight that scout Billy Dixon made his world-famous shot with a Sharps buffalo rifle, hitting a Comanche brave at a later-surveyed range of 1,538 yards (almost nine-tenths of a mile). The war ended in 1875 with the defeat of the Indian tribes, and their confinement to reservations in the Indian Nations (today part of central and eastern Oklahoma).
The US Army began preparing for hostilities by sending more soldiers to the chain of frontier forts it had erected in Texas and New Mexico. Military leaders recognized that infantry could not move fast enough on foot to catch up with Indian raiders on horseback, so they increased the proportion of mounted troops among their forces. That, in turn, led to a demand for more horses. The need, as described in the early pages of this book, was very great. Several people sought new ways to provide what the Army wanted, and was willing to pay for. Walt Ames’ horse-buying forays into Mexico are thus based on actual events.
The character of Don Thomas O’Halloran is also based on fact. Many Irish emigrated to Mexico in the first half of the 19th century, and fought for that country in the Mexican-American War from 1846-1848. Other Irish immigrants deserted from US forces to form Saint Patrick’s Battalion on the Mexican side. Don Thomas’ description of what happened to them is accurate. The 1999 film One Man’s Hero, starring Tom Berenger, depicts the history of the Batallón de San Patricio, and has received praise from critics. The unit is remembered at annual ceremonies in Mexico and Ireland to this day.
Walt’s adventures will continue as he’s drawn into the Red River War and events surrounding it, and tries to track down Major Gilbert d’Assaily’s surviving relatives.
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PETER GRANT
Texas, August 2019
About the Author
Peter Grant was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. Between military service, the IT industry and humanitarian involvement, he traveled throughout sub-Saharan Africa before being ordained as a pastor. He later immigrated to the USA, where he worked as a pastor and prison chaplain until an injury forced his retirement. He is now a full-time writer, and married to a pilot from Alaska. They currently live in Texas.
See all of Peter’s books at his Amazon.com author page, or visit him at his blog, Bayou Renaissance Man, where you can also sign up for his mailing list.
Books by Peter Grant
SCIENCE FICTION:
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The Maxwell Saga
Take The Star Road
Ride The Rising Tide
Adapt And Overcome
Stand Against The Storm
Stoke The Flames Higher
Venom Strike (forthcoming)
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The Laredo War (a trilogy)
War To The Knife
Forge A New Blade
Knife To The Hilt (forthcoming)
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Cochrane’s Company (a trilogy)
The Stones Of Silence
An Airless Storm
The Pride Of The Damned
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FANTASY:
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King’s Champion
Taghri’s Prize
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WESTERNS:
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The Ames Archives
Brings The Lightning
Rocky Mountain Retribution
Gold On The Hoof
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ANTHOLOGIES:
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Forged In Blood (ed. Michael Z. Williamson)
Terra Nova: The Wars of Liberation (ed. Tom Kratman)
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MEMOIR:
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Walls, Wire, Bars And Souls
